The Dwarves
Description Said to have been breed from the very stone and metal they live amongst, few are as tough and strong as the dwarves. They are known for their astonishing resistance to both cold and heat and their tough skin that make them great miners, builders, warriors, and blacksmiths. Not all dwarves are meant for the life of hard labor though as their ingenuity and stubbornness make them great engineers, merchants, politicians, and generals. Like their human cousins, few dwarves are capable of using magic and even fewer are powerful enough to accomplish powerful spells like luvians. Despite their lack of many powerful mages, few will decide to attack a dwarf. This is because what they lack in height, they more than make up for in their great strength. They are said to be able to lift gigantic boulders and crush the bones of dragons by adulthood. Society and Culture Dwarves are a very honor bound people as stubborn and unyielding as the stone they live amongst. In their traditions they gain their honor through hard work and skilty for the advancement, betterment, and defence of their people and homeland. They will do next to anything to gain honor for themselves and their family, and to defend that honor when it is earned. To lose one’s honor is the greatest of shames and can result in the exile of an individual from their homes, and loss of all their possessions. And once dishonor is gained it can be impossible to rid one’s self of it. Every duty that is in need of being carried out is respected and no one is discriminated for the path they choose in life as long as it does not bring them dishonor. And as long as the individual seeks the perfection in their duty, they will be treated with honor and respect. Though all are treated with respect, it is not the same respect that one would see from the elven Mariki. No, dwarves like their human cousins have a strict class system. In it, a younge dwarf choses which path they wish to follow and can go into any of the classes - excluding the Royal Lorons ofcourse. From there they continue to work down this path and will remain in it for most likly the rest of their lives. Techincally it is possiable to raise one’s station, but that dwarf must gain a lot of honor and the respect of the higher class before it can happen. If one leaves their class for a lesser one, it will be near impossiable to return to that class. Interclass marriage is also frowned upon and will bring dishonor to them, possiably leading to the loss of class for one or both of the individuals. The Classes: * The Lorons: this class consists of the King/Emporor and the Royal Family of the dwarves and are the only ones able to inheriet the throne of Darvac. They also have unquie privilages and rights as the rulling body of Darvac. They are also the only class able to marry someone of any lesser class without reprocusions, but will usually only marry out of the Hyons. * The Hyons: consisting of nobles and generals, this class is the highest any dwarf outside the royal family can rise to. It also is the hardest to possiably enter. Though nobles are elected by the people of a clan and can be anyone, they usually are only elected from a single family decendent of the original clan leaders. Generals are also hard to reach as it requires for one to first join the Kinon warrior class then go up the ranks through much hard work and dedication. This class like the Lorons enjoy special privelages and rights, but are never above the Lorons in power. Also the Hyons, especially the generals can marry out of class, but only Lorons, or Kinons or suffer dishonor. * The Kinons: Warriors and soldiers, Kinons make up the millitary and city gaurds of Darvac. Any dwarf can become a Kinon. Also it is the only class in which anyone of a different class can join with ease, but only if they are strong enough. Though these dwarves are payed well, they will likly have a hard life of agressive training and then a possiable lifetime of war. When a Kinon warrior is crippled, or grows to old to continue their duties they retire to halls of special honor where they are treated like Hyons if not already a general. Kinons are the lowest class able to marry out of class, but only with Hyons for to marry one of a lower class would mean dishonor. * The Martons: What is concidered the middle class of Darvac, this is unquie class in it being made up of two different classes. They are both Martons and have similar rights but neither is completly equal to the other. Both can marry between eachother but to try to marry above or below their station would bring them dishonor. ** The Vulon: The dwarves of this class are concidered to be upper Marton(middle) class and is higher in class of Plutons and have more rights and can gain more honor. It is mostly made up f engineers, inventor, and priests. ** The Pluton: Concidered lower Marton(middle) class these dwarves do not gain as much honor as their higher Vulon, and have few rights than them. Dwarves of this class are merchants, shop keepers, and craftsmen. * The Wakons: This final class is what is concidered to be the working class. Minors, factory workers, severents to Hyons and Kinons, tradesmen, and farmers. This class is the lowest of all, remaining only above the dishonored. They have the fewest of rights and can gain little honor, but are under the complete protection from the higher classes and are given all they need to live from the high classes where as the others must work pay for it themselves. Also with little honor gained, the dwarves of this class have little honor to loss so do not have to worry as much about bring dishonor to themself. Though they are stubborn they are far from ignorant. Dwarves may not have skilty of magic as luvians and elves, but their great ingenuity gives them power almost no one can match. They have long since master metalworking and through it founded the metal alloy known as Virtium that they use for everything from armor and weapons to their machines and tools. Through their ingenuity, they learned how to construct many machinations from trains, to automated forged, and advanced plumbing. No creation they have made is more influential than their famed and powerful gollums that can be used for everything from workers to powerful repairable metal warriors. Since they first came into being, dwarves have had a hate for dragons, and a untrust of the elves that dates back to the Dracoious Era and comes from their Dwariet ancestors. In turn they have a disdain for the gods Kaytora and Apollis who have always sided with and aided the elves. They are not without religion though as they follow a belive system known as The Divine Dogma. In this religion, the god Zirus is almost blindly worshiped and follow his teachings profusly . They also bare a care for the gods Omnesices and Pletus, and have followed their teaching in both learning and knowledge and trade and economy. They especially care for the teachings of the goddess Vulara as they seek ever imaginative ways to create more and innovate everything they make. History The Dracoious Era Age of the Gods Following the fall of Arain, many of the Great Mages would leave to follow the god Apolis, but one did not. The mage Hyronus feared for his people, the Dwariets; who were weak and facing many catastrophes as a result of the gods’ clashing in their war. Rather than further his power with his fellow mages, Hyronus choose to stay behind to protect and lead his people from the almost certain destruction. Seeing the dedication and care Hyronus had for his people, the god Zirus gifted unto him a sword that would grant him the power he would need to protect his people, the holy blade Excalibur. With the holy sword in hand, Hyronus lead the Dwariets away from the harsh land in which they lived. He decided to seek out the other mages he once fought with, and marched to Atlantis, hoping that he and his people would also be able to call it home. The journey from the east to Atlantis was a long and harsh one, but the power of Excalibur gave Hyronus the power to lead the Dwariets and give them the strength to carry on. Hyronus’s sons would take up the blade as the great sage did and they too used it’s power to lead their people. And the further they went, the more people were touched by the power of Excalibur and joined the Dwariets. The future of Hyronus’s people looked bright, and their hope and faith made them believe in prosperous future for them all. Little did they know of the horrors that awaited them. When the Dwariets finally reached Atlantis, they found that they were less welcome than they believed they would be. The first things they encountered were not men or beasts, but the vast Fire Kingdom of the dragons that was spread over much of Atlantis. In the south, they found decedents of the other Great Mages that followed Apolis had been changed into the elves. These long eared people were far different from the men they originated from, and those that still existed, and were less than willing to allow the ignorant and belligerent Dwariets into their forest to knock down their trees and burn their home in their arrogance. Cast out for Elben, the Dwariets refused to back down. They had migrated to Atlantis seeking a home, and they were determine to make one there, even if they had to carve it out. Not wishing to provoke the wrath of Apollis or Kaytora who aided the elves, the Dwarves chose to face the Fire Kingdom, demanding territory of their own. Laughing in the faces of the small and insignificant humans, the dragons refused and tried to banish the Dwariets. The dragons were then faced with swarms of ferocious Dwariets that refused to leave quietly. Thus the Stone and Fire wars began. Though brave and courageous, the Dwariets were no match for the might of the Fire Kingdom. Many were slaughtered by the dragons and the humans were left scattered and leaderless, fighting a losing battle. That was when Zirus took pity on the Dwariets, and through his holy blade, he gave the humans the knowledge to forge the first gollum. The first gollums were that of stone and wood and were weak, but enough to gives the people what they needed to survive. It was then that the Dwariets divided and took two separate paths. In the forest of Bareach, a large group of Dwariets built gollums of wood and bark. These gollums were not strong by any means, but were swift, easy to make and were used to hide their masters from the dragons, or - in swarms - protect them. These Dwariets would later change and become the ancient gnomes. To the north, the Dwariets of the mountains would build gollums of stone. Their gollum were strong and resilient to the attacks a dragon’s fire, but were slow and hard to construct. These gollums would be used to defend to Dwarites of the region, but more importantly, carve out the vast underground tunnels and caves their masters would take shelter in. Becoming shorter to be better suited to living underground, and strong to get better at creating their gollums, these Dwariets were changed, becoming the dwarves that are seen today. With their gollum forces and Excalibur, the dwarves and gnomes decimated the armies of The Fire Kingdom and brought forth it’s end. This would in turn cause the recession of the dragons and the end of The Stone and Fire War. Mystic Era The Age of Clans With their dragon enemies defeated, the dwarves had finally established their right to a new homeland of their own. Rather than leaving their subterranean fortresses though, the dwarves remained in them, making them into grand and larger cities. This cities would become the hubs for the Great Clans of the dwarves; the most prominent of which were Droben(the most powerful clan of them all), Volrac, Zinmen, Golthoria, and Boranthia. These clan were almost never truly united and would almost always bicker amongst themselves. Sometimes these disputes would turn into all out skirmishes between clans. This would not last however as they would once again have a common enemy. The ancestors of the other humans that followed the Dwariets to Atlantis joined neither the dwarves or the gnomes. They feared magic after seeing it’s wrath during the Stone and Fire wars, and the gollums of the two races were living embodiments of the very thing they hated most, even more than the dragons. Ignorant and arrogant, they shunned the races of elves, gnomes, and dwarves and took their own path of non-magic. Despite their distrust of magic, many of these humans would be the very cause and ancestors of the the creation of the most magically powerful race in history; the luvians. After the luvians first came into being they were fearsome and dangerous. The dragon blood that ran through them and was almost too animalistic, too full of hate and malice for them to manage. The dwarf clans recognized the dangers of the luvians and built an alliance with the humans elves, and gnomes to defend against the luvians, known as The Alliance of Men. The dwarves took the lead of the The Alliance quickly formed armies and marched against their enemy, beginning the Men-Luvian War. With the luvians already living within their borders, the dwarves fought the hardest against the them, and were dealt the most decisive blows. As the war dragged on, The Alliance lost more and more battle, but the dwarves quickly became aware that the luvians were faring no better. The luvians’ forces were beginning to dwindle and they were fighting more desperately. After the war raged for nearly a decade, the tide had finally turned. The Alliance dealt a decisive blow to the luvians and had them on the retreat to their home cities. Seeing a chance to end the war quickly, Barlin, the leader of the Volrac Clan, took Excalibur in hand and marched on the luvians’ home. The might of the dwarven army was great, but the luvians had lured Barlin into a trap and slew him and most of his army. Stealing Excalibur from Barlin’s corpse, the luvians had it cast into the ocean as a punishment toward the dwarves. With their holy blade lost, the dwarven moral fell greatly and they almost completely receded from the war. After the remaining members of The Alliance lost The Battle of Korthon however, everything changed. The Golden Age of Man The luvians, almost over night, changed their ways. The luvians came forth claiming to have discovered the ancient tomb of Tryth, the holy prophet of the elven Mariki. It was there they had discovered the holy blade of Kaytora and through it the god of mercy and caring changed the luvians. Through his grace, the luvians dragon hate and rage was calmed and they saw the errors of their ways. They them casted aside their weapons seeking to end the war peacefully instead of fight and kill the other races of men. From then on the luvians no longer sought to kill others, they aided them and change the world. For the dwarves, the luvians gifted onto them, not only great knowledge of magic, but also of currency, new mining techniques, and metalworking. Armed with new ideas, the dwarves prospered. With their new mining and metalworking techniques, they discovered the secrets to Virtium and then the creation of the first Virtium gollem. Then with new currency and mining, the dwarves created hundreds of gold coins and trinkets that would make them wealthy beyond all belief. Quickly the traditions of clans melted away in the new prosperity and unity the dwarves shared and The Kingdom of Darvac was formed. With their great wealth and power, the dwarves would even connect their mountain strongholds with a vast network of highways in underground tunnels. As a testament to the power of Darvac, King Barlin VII, had a new grand capital constructed known as the Royal Mines. The First Age of Darkness At the height of the Dwarven Golden Age, the greatest threat to the world rose to power. Koran the Superior, The Defiler of the Gnomes, and Prince of Destruction and Darkness, attacked all the peoples of Atlantis, and the dwarves were not spared. Though the humans and gnomes bore the worst of the great storm that was The Dark Empire, Darvac was brutally hammered by waves and waves of trolls and demons. Only their grand Virtium golems were enough to hold off the horde, but it was not enough. Little by little, the dwarves were pushed further and further back into their tunnels and the Koran’s forces inched closer to the Royal Mines. The dwarves appealed to the luvians for aid, but none could reach Darvac as the luvians too were barely able to stand their ground. All hope seemed lost. That was when Gorak came. Once a common minor, Gorak proved himself both a capable warrior and a great tacticioner. He quickly earned the respect of all dwarves and men everywhere. After Gorak single handedly killed over five hundred trolls and dozen of demons both turning the tide of a very important battle and crippling Koran’s army in Darvac, king Barlin XI dubbed him High General of Darvac. With new powers, Gorak lead the dwarven armies to victory wherever he went. But no battle would be as famous as his defeat in the ancient cortan mines of Karalek, when he nearly trapped and killed Koran the mine where his powers would be made useless. Koran escaped, despite Gorak’s best efforts, but the wounds the dwarven general dealt gave the luvians the opportunity they needed to put an end to the Emperor of darkness. Gorak himself would not survive the battle however, but the elite warriors of his army who did, founded the order of Diamond Warriors in his memory. Today Gorak’s story is still remembered and is sung by dwarven warriors before they go into battle. During the the time that followed the death of Koran, known as The Great Purge, the dwarvs were prantically trapped in their tunnels. Very few were allowed to leave Darvac and most of those few were warriors and leaders of The Diamond Warrior called forth for meetings with the other two orders or for missions from the luvians. Because of this, Darvac suffered greatly. What were once prosperious markets and store, became empty and pillaged ghost towns. Entire factories came to a halt for either a lack of demand for their products, or for marshal law on magic use. Thousands of dwarves lost their homes and duties, and in the eyes of their phyolosophy their honor aswell. This would become a time of great striff and decline for the dwarves. It would seem that The Great Purge had become a worse enemy for the dwaves than Koran himself. This sadly would be proven false. After the Purge had lasted nearly a decade, a great plunge ravenged the the grand capital of the Royal Mines. With the dwarves even in the Capital living in such squable, the disease spread rampently. Many hundreds died in a matter of days. Just as the dwarves were beginning to handle this horror, the worst of it struck. Without warning or mercy, the dead began to stir and rise again. With days the royal guard was overwhelmed by walking corpses that ruthessly killed more people to add to their ranks. In a week over half of the Royal Mines were overrun with the dead. Not even the mighty gollem army was cappable of stopping the hord. All hope seemed to have already faded when the luvians finally arrived. Though not even the powerful magic users were able to stem the tide. With no other choice, the luvians had the Royal Mines sealed off. From then on, the once grand capital of Darvac was closed, and was then forth known as The Forbidden Mines. With the Forrbidden Mine sealed, the dwarves lost more than their capital. The Grand Market of the Royal Mine, the once great hubb of all sourse of trade and comerse in Atlantis, that was promised to be reopened after the purge, was lost. What was worse was that the Great Library of the Darvac was lost and along with it the closly kept secret to making Virtium. Even the gollem factories of which every Viritium gollom was made in was too in the Royal Mines and was lost. With the loss of the Library also went nearly half of the command stones for controling the already made golloms were lost, rendering a large chunk of their gollom useless. The very sourses of knowledge, infstructure, and the dwarves’ greatest millitary asset was gone. On that fatful day the great Vitium doors of the Royal Mine shut, the very backbone of the dwarves was crippled. The Mortal Era The Age of Empires After the Great Purge ended, Atlantis began to prosper again. So too did the dwarves. Though much of their power was lost, they had learned to adapt. They took on older methods of making gollom the replace the ones they lost in the war and the purge. The factories of Darvac hummbed back to life. The markets became once agained filled with busteling traders, merchents, and buyers once more. Trade routes in and out of Darvac openned once again. Atlantis was returning to what it once was, and more. Following Locria’s triumphant return to glory after it’s fall during the Dark War, it took on new territory outside Atlantis it procured form Koran’s empire. With new land, the human kingdom took on a new name: The Empire of Locria. Inspired by Locria, King Kalgen II decided to rename Darvac to the Empire of Darvac and crown himself as Emperor Kalgen I. Outside the Empire of Darvac, the dwarves watched and did little as the human lands toiled and fought to stay together as disaster after disaster struck them and their continuious attempts to expand their reach outside Atlantis. After Altintis was sealed away, the dwarves were effected little, but watched as the human cousins suffered more as they lost much of the vast territory.It wasn’t until a couple hundred years after the sealing, that the dwarvs took notice and were motivated to involve themselves in the lands of men. From out of the protal to the mortal realm, the mortal Roman 9th leagon arrived without warning. The stuggling Locrian Empire no wish more war welcomed the mortals with open arms and even gave them land in the province of Thuosis. The Roman soldiers though gracfully accepted the gifts had more sinister plans than their Atlantian counter parts. In nearly a month of little conflict, the mortal leagon had conpuered the Locrian capital and it’s Emporer and council. Within half a year more than a third of Atlantis was in the control of the mortal generals, reating The 9th Empire. At first dwarves cared little but quickly found that the human rule of the Romans was not to the liking. New trading regulations become increasingly one sided toward the 9th Empire. Then human terrorists began spreading diseat and disloyalty amoungst the dwarves to the Empire. Emporer Kalgen VIII was none to thrilled about this and quickly tensions grew between the 9th Empire and the Empire of Darvac. It wasn’t until after The March of Amar that all out war between Darvac and the 9th broke out. With the human empire facing four front between the elves, the dwarves, the human rebels, and the luvians, was quickly crummbling under the pressure. Forced to make drastic decisions, the 9th Empire gave the providence of Karadil to the dwarves as a peace offering. Pleased with the offer, and not wanting to risk his precious gollems, Emporer Kalgen VII gladly accepted. Peace however would not be kept. Even without the dwarves to condend with, the 9th Empire was overthrown and the Locrian Empire reesablished. The leader of Locria, King Amar I soon began to seek resablising control of all of Locria’s stolen territory. Something the the dwarven Empire was less than willing to aid in. The new Darvac emporer, Kalgen VIII still held control over province of Karadil. King Amar I called for the return of the human land. Plees, the proud Emporer Kalgen would refuse. After all, though Darvac had lost a forth of the gollum force, they still had many gollums and a much and better equipt and financed force of warriors than the poor once enslaved humans. This would be a desision that Kalgen and all of Darvac would learn to regreat dearly. Amar was a practiced and tactionor, and his army was full of seasoned vetarins. The dwarves had seen two generations of peace, leaving their armies inexperienced and lax. The king of Locria knew this and even warned Kalgen of his, but the Emporer still ignored him and the Darvac-Locrian War began. Though battles were very costly in dwarven lives a first, many of the battles were won by Darvac’s sheer force and her gollums. It was then that Amar realized that the backbone of the dwrven millitary was the metel warriors. Armed with this knowlege, the Locrian now had a target to focus on. After a year of fighting, the Locrian force had cornored the mass of the dwarve’s gollum in a moutain pass. This allowed a smaller splinter group to march on the dwarven headquaters in Karadil and destroy the gollum command stones that were kept there, leaving the dwarven main force utterly without their driving force. The backbone of Darvac’s millitary was broken. King Amar II, who took the throne after his father’s death, later would lead the Locrian army to victory in Karadil and forcing the dwarves to surrender. As part of the terms of the Treaty of Vaireach, Darvac would not only reliquish Karadil but more territory and the title of Empire. Defeated and dishonored, Kalgen never returned to Darvac and went into exile in Elbon. The dwarven empire ended, and the age with it. From then on, the dwarven lands would never be the same. And it was not for the better. The Age of Pain Not much is known about the history of Atlantis during this age. With such wide spead caose, little was recorded. All that is know is that great plueges and famine ravanged not only Alantis, but the world. Trolls had managed to force their way into the tunnels of Darvac for the first time since The First Age of Darkness. It was a dark time for all civilazation, and it was by some merical that the nations of Atlantis endured and survived.